discolored testicle in heritage mix... cause?

[Molpet]

well I did a couple of white cx mix cockerels hatched sept 30th
one had 3 testicles, the 3rd was small and attached to the top side of the big one on the left pic to follow

 

[Molpet]

 

[aart]

well I did a couple of white cx mix cockerels hatched sept 30th
one had 3 testicles, the 3rd was small and attached to the top side of the big one on the left pic to follow

Damn, those are huge!

 

[Molpet]

 

[Molpet]

He had been rather rambunctious, chasing his brother out of the bachelor pad. I caught him yesterday and he managed to get away. I forgot the electrical tape I secure their legs with once I net them.... this morning he wasn't so lucky.

 

[aart]

He had been rather rambunctious, chasing his brother out of the bachelor pad. I caught him yesterday and he managed to get away. I forgot the electrical tape I secure their legs with once I net them.... this morning he wasn't so lucky.

I prefer to 'catch' them at night off the roost after dark, put em in a crate.

 

[Molpet]

I prefer to 'catch' them at night off the roost after dark, put em in a crate.

these cx mixes legs tend to dislocate easily ..I was running them into a dog crate and grabbing them. They twist and oops. Of course they are all in a panic and have never been touched before... I think I'll have to socialize this years so they aren't so afraid. I just feel like I am betraying them if I win their trust.

 

[Mosey2003]

Wow!

 

[aart]

Of course they are all in a panic and have never been touched before... I think I'll have to socialize this years so they aren't so afraid. I just feel like I am betraying them if I win their trust.

I'm not a chicken cuddler but do handle them enough so they learn 'you will not die if touched by the human'...again mostly done off the roost at dark night with a crooning soft voice. Just a quick hold and touch all over, good time to look for bugs, then back onto the roost. But I only have about 30 or so birds at a time during hatch season....oh and not meat birds.

 

[ThracianHorse]

So... what might be accounting for the size difference, and perhaps color difference in the testicles is a feature native to all birds.

Birds, unlike mammals, can atrophy organs they aren't using, and in the case of testicles and ovaries... usually only one is active at a time, therefore one will be bigger than the other. This is theorized to be a mechanism to reduce weight in flying birds - they can also do it with some of their organs, particularly in species that migrate long distances in one shot. It lets them pack in more fat if they can squish down their organs. In the case of the testicles and ovaries, in normal birds the gonads are not only active only in spring, but only one gets used at a time. With chickens it's slightly different since we've bred them to lay for far longer and far more eggs than any wild junglefowl would make. Results may vary in domestic stock... but that is what it is in the wild.

EDIT: Some reading material on the subject:
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1000362
https://www.karger.com/Article/Fulltext/358406

That second paper seems to imply that the second set of gonads never develops. My Ornithology Prof in college as well as the notes I took on avian breeding says otherwise.